Poetry seems to sink into us the way prose doesn't. I can still quote verses I learned when I was very young but I have trouble remembering one line of a novel I just finished reading.

I think I'm a very good reader of poetry but obviously like everybody I have a set of criteria for reading poems and I'm not shy about presenting them so if people ask for my critical response to a poem I tell them what works and why and what doesn't work and why.

From reading a previous answer you know that I consider all those aspects to be part of American cultural myth and thus they figure into good American poetry whether the poet is aware of what he is doing or not.

And there are a lot more people reading poetry but there are not so many people reading an individual poet.

I've done a number of readings at poetry lounges in Vancouver and Los Angeles. I've compiled a book of poetry that's completed and two others I'm working on.

Reading a piece of poetry with no beat in front of 20 people is way more challenging than rocking for 10 000 people.

So I really began as a failed poet - although when I first wanted to be a writer I learned to write prose by reading poetry.

In Australia not reading poetry is the national pastime.

I wrote some bad poetry that I published in North African journals but even as I withdrew into this reading I also led the life of a kind of young hooligan.

More people are reading poetry now than at any time in the history of the human race.